Service improvements

Durham County Council

Showing service improvements between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022

Find out more about service improvements

When we find fault, we can recommend improvements to systems and processes where they haven’t worked properly, so that others do not suffer from these same problems in future. Common examples are policy changes; procedural reviews; and staff training. Service improvements from decisions are published for 5 years and those from reports are published for 10 years.

Showing 1 - 2 of 2 cases with service improvements

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Downloads the current filtered list of service improvement decisions for Durham County Council as a CSV file.

  • Durham County Council (21 005 240)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 04-Jan-2022

    Summary

    Mr X complained the Council handled his application for council tax reduction poorly, causing him distress. We found the Council at fault in the way it communicated on Mr X’s application. We recommend the Council apologise to Mr X and review the communication it sends out to council tax reduction applicants.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff of its council tax reduction published process and the need to give clear reasons for the decisions they make.

  • Durham County Council (21 003 577)

    Category: Benefits and tax Date: 14-Jan-2022

    Summary

    Miss X complained the Council refused her application for discretionary housing payment. There was fault in the Council’s actions in the way it considered Miss X’s application, but this did not lead to an injustice. The Council also failed to refer Miss X to the welfare benefit team which caused her uncertainty. The Council agreed to apologise to Miss X and complete the referral to the welfare benefits team.

    Service improvements

    The Council will remind staff of the importance of consistency when considering expenditure, and to follow the procedure for considering universal credit advance payment recovery, in financial assessments for discretionary housing payment applications..

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